Ethan looked startled by the straight talk.
“I’m just being realistic,” he insisted. “For all the things we’ve discovered we have in common, there are still plenty of things that make us a bad match, not the least of which is you needing to figure out what you really want out of life.”
She wanted to tell him that she had figured it out, that she wanted him and a family and a home right here, but how could she? The idea was still too new to her, too far from certain. She let her silence speak for itself, let him think he’d gotten it right because she couldn’t honestly deny that he had.
As they sat on a bench in the glow of the moonlight, he faced her, longing in his eyes. He caressed her cheek, his hand charmingly unsteady. Samantha wanted to capture it, press a kiss to his palm, but she held back.
“You figure things out,” he said quietly. “Then we’ll talk.”
Though the comment offered more hope than anything he’d said before, she wasn’t satisfied with the concession. “Just so you know, in my opinion, talking is highly overrated.”
“And yet you get onstage and deliver lines for a living,” he teased in an obvious attempt to lighten the mood.
“Those are somebody else’s words, someone else’s emotions,” she said. “In the real world, I’m just saying there may be better ways to communicate.”
He draped his arm around her shoulder, warming her when she shivered in the breeze off the ocean. “A topic for another day,” he said. “Let’s just focus on the here and now. You. Me. The moonlight. The sound of the waves. What’s not to love?”
It was more than he’d ever offered before, so she took him up on it. She leaned in to all that solid strength and heat and sighed. “It’s a perfect moment,” she agreed, her voice shaky.
Though there was a very good chance that all this sweet proximity with no payoff just might make her a little crazy.
* * *
Ethan felt as if he’d brushed up against danger and emerged with little more than battle scars as he drove over to Cora Jane’s. He’d wanted everything Samantha had been offering at the beach, wanted it with a level of desire he hadn’t felt even when he’d been engaged. He liked that she challenged his assumptions, liked that she deliberately tempted him, putting her own emotions on the line. The attraction he felt for her had spiked by several heated degrees tonight. But attraction didn’t always last. His engagement had been proof of that. And when it wore off, hearts could get broken. He didn’t want it to be hers any more than he wanted to go through that pain again himself.
He knew he’d spend the lonely hours in his cold bed kicking himself for not giving in, but he also knew he’d still be able to look in the mirror in the morning. Sex would have been easy. Doing the right thing took a toll.
As he parked in Cora Jane’s driveway, he turned to face Samantha. “Any idea what’s on tomorrow’s agenda? Do we have wedding-related duties?”
“Boone’s folks are flying in with their respective spouses. He’s expecting all of us for dinner at the restaurant in the private dining room. Personally, I think we should have eaten in the main dining room with everyone else.”
“Why is that?”
“Have you ever been around both of his parents at the same time? Now that his mom is on her third or fourth husband, they’re barely civil. She always has some snarky comment about his dad’s trophy wife that gets things started. He replies in kind and it pretty much goes downhill from there.”
Ethan winced. “I haven’t crossed paths with them since the divorce years ago, but it sounds like a barrel of laughs. Maybe he should include the Farmers, too, and complete the circle of warring factions.”
“Are you kidding? Emily told me that Boone insisted they be invited to the wedding as a courtesy. He thought maybe they’d finally accept the situation for B.J.’s sake.”
“I assume they didn’t,” Ethan said.
“Hardly. Jodie shredded the invitation. She even crossed out the preprinted address on the envelope because it was Emily’s and sent the bits of paper directly to Boone.”
Ethan sighed at the woman’s all-too-typical response, her deliberate attempt to inflict pain on Boone. “I hope one of these days she’ll be able to let go of her grief and anger, if only for B.J.,” he said. “He doesn’t need to feel as if he’s torn between his grandparents and his stepmother. He loves them all.”
“And needs them,” Samantha agreed. “I just don’t understand why Jodie can’t see that she’s his tie to his mom. There are so many stories she can share with him, stories B.J. needs to hear. He was so young when Jenny died. I know he doesn’t want to forget about his mom. Instead, if Jodie keeps this up, she’ll only alienate him.”
“I hate it when children get caught up in adult warfare,” Ethan said. “Usually it happens after a divorce. Even Boone, one of the most stable guys around, has baggage from his parents’ split. Of course, in his case, it’s turned out to be a positive thing. He works twice as hard to protect B.J. and to keep the peace with the Farmers, even when Jodie makes it all but impossible.”
“What about your family?” Samantha asked. “I just remember seeing your mom and dad at football games on the few times we came over here in the fall to visit Grandmother. They were certainly united in their support of you.”
“They’re happily united, period. They’ve retired and moved over to Asheville. They sit on their porch in the evening, holding hands and watching the sun set in the mountains. I feel like a fifth wheel every time I visit.”
“You can see that level of contentment and not believe in happily-ever-after?” Samantha asked, studying
